Manslaughter Ruled In Stabbing Death

April 24, 1991|By RONNIE CROCKER Staff Writer

HAMPTON — A man who was recovering from brain surgery when he stabbed another man to death was convicted Tuesday of voluntary manslaughter.

Brian H. Denny, 34, faces up to 10 years in prison when he is sentenced next month in Circuit Court for killing a man who was assaulting Denny's former live-in girlfriend in her Buckroe home Dec. 3. The defendant claimed he acted in self-defense.

Denny and Alma V. Hazelwood had lived together for 13 years, mostly in Northern Virginia, the two testified Tuesday. But Denny said he came down with sickle cell anemia and could not support them both anymore, so Hazelwood moved back to Hampton last year.

He said he continued to visit the woman and her 14-year-old daughter, but that he knew Hazelwood had started dating Paul E. Sherrod. Denny said he was still recuperating from surgery to remove a brain aneurysm when he came to the area Nov. 28 to shop for Christmas presents with Hazelwood.

The night of Dec. 3, he testified, Sherrod called for Hazelwood several times at her home. At the woman's request, Denny told Sherrod she was not home. Finally, when Sherrod came to the house and knocked on the door, Denny let him in.

Denny testified that Sherrod and Hazelwood went into the bathroom to talk. Moments later, he said, he heard the woman scream and sounds of a fight. When he ran into the bathroom, Denny said Sherrod had knocked Hazelwood into the bathtub and was punching her.

The two men then began fighting. Their scuffle spilled into the hallway and finally into the bedroom used by Hazelwood's nephew. Denny said he grabbed a steak knife in his left hand and a perfume bottle in his right hand and began swinging them both at Sherrod.

Denny, who is left-handed, said he did not remember the knife piercing Sherrod's chest.

An autopsy report revealed that Sherrod had used cocaine within 24 hours of his death and that his blood-alcohol content was 0.17 when he died. Under state law, a person can be considered legally too drunk to drive with a blood-alcohol content of 0.10.